Martin Rome, Richard Conte, a hardened criminal, lies in a hospital room awaiting surgery for the critical wounds he sustained in a deadly shootout in which he killed a police officer. At his bedside, a chorus of visitors arrives: his own family, his girlfriend, a priest to administer last rites, and Teena Riconti, Debra Paget, a delicate but memorable presence as the younger woman who ties into the plot in a tense, ambiguous way. Two police detectives, Candella, Victor Mature, and Collins, Fred Clark, probe the circumstances of the jewel robbery and the murder that set Rome on this precipice. They know there is a different man who has already been captured and sentenced to death for the crime, yet Rome's own past life as a street-smart criminal haunts every interrogation.
The tension escalates when W. A. Niles, Berry Kroeger, a sleazy lawyer with an agenda, visits the ward and tries to force Rome into confessing, even threatening Teena to keep his leverage. Rome's instincts flare, and in a moment of raw rage he lunges to strangle the man, a display of the violence that still clings to him. Later, Niles becomes a target again when Rome, fresh from a transfusion of pain and resolve, convinces Miss Pruett, Betty Garde, a nurse with a stubborn kindness, to hide Teena away at her own apartment, giving Teena a brief measure of safety away from prying eyes and the ever-present danger of an investigation.
When Rome is moved to the prison hospital ward, a trusted guard, Orvy, Walter Baldwin, helps him slip away in a bold escape. The chase pivots to the high-stakes game of money and escape: Rome goes to Niles' office with the aim of securing money to flee with Teena to somewhere far from the law. He persuades Niles to open his safe, and in the moment where the truth is laid bare, the jewels are revealed—hidden in the very objects they had used to frame an innocent. Niles, cornered, confesses that the woman accomplice in the murder and robbery was a surly masseuse named Rose Givens, played by Hope Emerson. As Niles reaches for his gun in a secret drawer, Rome stabs him to death; in the struggle, the receptionist is accidentally killed. The jewels vanish from the safe and Rome, now feverish but determined, hides them in a locker at a subway station.
Back at his parents' apartment, Rome finds a complicated mix of love, resentment, and loyalty. His father rejects him, unable to see beyond the violence that defined his son's life, while his teenage brother Tony, [Tommy Cook], still idolizes Rome and clings to the dream of a hero who can outwit the world. Their mother, a figure of stern practicality and warmth, along with Mama Roma, [Mimi Aguglia], anchors the family in a city that never forgives, as she reproaches Rome and urges him to leave before the law closes in. Amid this domestic drama, Candella arrives to search the apartment, and Rome, brandishing a gun, makes a dramatic exit, leaving a shattered family and a note of warning.
Rome shifts to an old ally-turned-asset Brenda, [Shelley Winters], a former flame who agrees to help him locate Rose Givens. Owing to the violence of his wounds and the weight of his past, he requires help from an unlicensed foreign doctor, attended by Dr. Veroff, [Konstantin Shayne], whose medical skills come with their own set of moral ambiguities. Brenda drives Rome to the address of Rose, and there in a moment of fragile negotiation, he offers to exchange the jewels for five thousand dollars, a car, safe passage out of the country, and a night of rest that has eluded him since the shootout.
As the town hums with a quiet tension, Candella and Collins renew their questioning of those who might have helped Rome escape from the hospital and those who might have had a hand in the broader scheme. The authorities chase down a panoply of suspects: the hospital staff, a cunning intern, and even a veterinarian who admits treating the wounded man under a conspiracy of silence. In this web of confessions and misdirections, Rose makes her move, aiming to cash in the jewels by delivering them to a buyer—but a confrontation erupts at the subway station when the police close in and Rose is drawn into a violent scuffle. Candella is wounded by a shot meant for Rome, and a tense pursuit follows, with the chase leading back to Teena's whereabouts and the church.
In the church sanctuary, Teena seeks a sense of sanctuary, a moment of mercy amid the storm of violence. Rome finds her there, and for a fleeting instant the future seems to hinge on a whispered choice: a life on the run with a fortune and a lover, or a return to a more human, if precarious, possibility of redemption. Candella arrives, persuading Teena to leave with him, while the detective’s own caution about what Rome might do next is palpable. The moment of reckoning arrives as Rome and Candella collide, not just in words but in a deadly, fatal confrontation. Candella disarms the wounded Rome, who trudges into the street with ruthlessness and inevitability—and when the chasing officer closes the distance, he fires a single shot into Rome’s back, ending the violent odyssey.
The final image is etched with heartbreak: Tony, still learning to navigate right from wrong, reaches the scene just as the arrest unfolds. He watches in silence as the man who once stood as a towering figure in his life falls, and the car ride away from the chaos becomes a vehicle for his own tears. The story leaves a mark on a family, a city, and a boy who must learn to walk away from the shadow of his brother's crime.
